My friend David Steckel got a copy before I did. As I've talked about previously, for whatever reason our area didn't get any copies of FANTASTIC FOUR #200, the long-awaited and heavily-promoted anniversary issue. For some reason, none of the oversized Marvel books, such as Annuals, turned up in this period. It was one of … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #200
And now we come to what is generally regarded as the strongest period in the 100-issue run of MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE's history. With this newest issue, #53, the six-part Project: PEGASUS Saga kicked off, signaling the arrival of the writing team of Mark Gruenwald and Ralph Macchio. Macchio had created the titular Project; PEGASUS for an … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #53
My year of frustration continued with FANTASTIC FOUR #207, another issue of my favorite title that I first saw out in the world in spinner racks the week that it came out. But having won a free subscription to the series, I had to wait until my copy finally made its way to me through … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #207
It's been a while since we dropped one of these on you. So here are more photographs taken over the years depicting practitioners of the medium, both editorial and creators. As usual, there's a lot of Stan Lee. One of the earliest photographs that survives of Jakob Kurtzburg, who would come to be called Jack … Continue reading Comic Creators in the Wild 12
I'm not entirely certain of the circumstances after all of these years, but I believe it happened as a result of my filling out and sending in a survey concerning Marvel's upcoming ODYSSEY magazine, which eventually reached newsstands as EPIC ILLUSTRATED. Or it may have been some other survey, possibly released through PIZZAZZ magazine or … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #206
The week brought another issue of MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE, this one featuring an assortment of special guest stars hanging out with Ben Grimm. Part of the reason for that is that this was one of those stories commissioned as an emergency fill-in that could be used in multiple places given the need. So it could have … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #51
It was an exciting day when this Fantastic Four-themed MARVEL TREASURY EDITION showed up at my local 7-11. Because of their size, the Treasury Editions were racked with the general magazines rather than by the comic book spinner rack, meaning that you needed to know to go and look for them. As FANTASTIC FOUR was … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TREASURY EDITION #21
It's tough to find a Marvel comic from this period that didn't feature any cover copy whatsoever, but this latest issue of FANTASTIC FOUR fit the bill. It probably could have used some, honestly, if only to contextualize what the FF were fighting. But it's a nice action piece either way. And I didn't need … Continue reading BHOC: FANTASTIC FOUR #205
If you were a kid growing up in the 1970s, then these Topps stickers are going to be familiar to you. These things were everywhere--stuck up in all manner of places by industrious kids who bought them either because they had a love for the Marvel Super Heroes of that period, or just because they … Continue reading The 1974/1975 Topps Marvel Super Heroes Stickers
Now this was a comic book that I really liked. So much so that I sent a letter of comment in to the letters page asking that creator John Byrne be allowed to both write and pencil FANTASTIC FOUR. A real case of "be careful what you wish for", as I stopped buying FF under … Continue reading BHOC: MARVEL TWO-IN-ONE #50
The Tom Brevoort Experience 